I pressed my lips together to keep quiet. I was pretty sure he was yanking my chain, but I didn’t want to fuck around and find out.
“Why are you so scared about with this relationship?” he asked, changing direction and giving me whiplash.
“What? Who said I’m scared?”
He glared at me, not answering.
“I thought you were going to talk about your marriage and how it ended.”
“We’ll get back to that in a minute, but right now, you’re avoiding my question and wasting my time.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “It’s not about the relationship. It’s about keeping her safe. Just being with me is a danger to her.”
He furrowed his brow. “I’m sorry, I thought we were talking about the hot little blonde, the one who stole a dog from a drug ring, right out from under some asshole’s nose. You must mean some other woman whodidn’taccidentally step in a steaming pile of shit.”
Now I glared at him. “Of course I mean Cami. And yes, she stepped in it, but she was doing the right thing. Then I happened to be at the right place at the right time, and she thought I was her hero. But I’m no hero. I’m putting her in more danger. And I have even less chance of protecting her if she doesn’t tell me the truth.”
He held up a hand. “Back up, back up. You’re worried you can’t protect her? What was that last week in your driveway? I showed up and there were two hostiles down, a third in retreat, and three different law enforcement agencies en route.”
“The third guy could have gotten away.”
“Really? Because I had a feeling you just left him for me to take care of so I wouldn’t get cranky about missing the fun.”
I shrugged. “I did have a grenade launcher if it came to that.”
Lang laughed. I couldn’t remember seeing him do that in the five months I’d known him. “I figured. So, you think if your vet had hooked up with...I don’t know...a zookeeper, he would have kept her safer? Because here’s the thing you need to get through that thick head of yours. They were coming for her, with or without you. And no, you can’talways keep her safe. Being alive is inherentlyunsafe. You want to be in love, that risk is the price you pay.”
“Maybe the zookeeper wouldn’t have told her to turn over the drugs to the feds, those idiots who doxed her.”
“The FBI did us a favor,” Land said. “Their fuck-up smoked out the advance crew. Now we know more are coming, and we can prepare. I hate to break it to you, asshat, but the woman’s right. You’re her hero.”
I shook my head. “Then why is she lying to me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably something deep and dark and catastrophic, like she’s not perfect.”
I sank down farther in my chair. “I’m not asking her to be.”
“Good. Because in the end, what ended my marriage wasn’t what came at us from the outside. Do you know what did us in?”
I had a lot of smartass comments on the tip of my tongue, but not enough energy to share them. I shook my head.
“We stopped working on it,” he said. “Stopped talking. Didn’t ask questions. Made assumptions.”
“I take it this is an allegory for Cami and me.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Have you boys been practicing your vocab words?”
“And people say I’m the smartass.”
“People say you’re the class clown,” Lang corrected. “They say Wheeler’s the smartass. Although it is a fine line. To answer your question, yes, it’s an allegory for your relationship.”
“Christ, Lang, that was a long, painful way to arrive atcommunicate better.”
“Yeah, but if I didn’t make it painful, you wouldn’tremember it.” He stood, indicating our bro bonding was over.
No, I would never call it bro bonding to Lang’s face, but I was definitely using that exact phrase when I shared this story with Hayes and Wheeler.
“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, this conversation never happened,” he said, as if he could read my mind. He was back to being Lang. Scary as always. “Rogers, this stays between us, right?” he said more firmly. “We’re not going to have a problem, are we?”
